Henning Mankell

"A novel in which Kurt Wallander becomes involved in the case of the disappearance of a retired naval officer--who is Wallander's daughter Linda's future father-in-law--which leads him into a story of Cold War espionage. Wallander also confronts his own age and mortality, while welcoming his first granddaughter"-- Provided by publisher.

Cold and poverty define Hanna Renstrom's childhood in remote northern Sweden, and in 1905, at nineteen, she boards a ship for Australia in hope of a better life. But none of her hopes--or fears--prepares her for the life she will lead. After two brief marriages, she finds herself a widow twice over, and the owner of a bordello in Portuguese East Africa, a world where colonialism and white supremacy rule, where she is isolated within society by her...

"The year is 1911. The young rock blaster Oskar Johansson has been killed in an accident. Or so it says in the local newspaper. In spite of serious injuries, however, Oskar survives. Decades later, Oskar looks back and reflects on his working life as an invalid, his marriage, his dreams, and his hopes. Oskar's life is woven together out of fragments of voices, images, and episodes that, taken together, provide a sharp and precise picture of life in...

In An Event in autumn, Wallander finds the remains of a young woman buried at the back of his garden. When another woman's body washes up on the shore, Wallander searches for the connection. In The Dogs of Riga, the corpses of two Latvian men, covered in mafia tattoos, are discovered in Ystad harbor. When Wallander travels to Riga in search of the killers, he becomes entangled in a web of corruption. And in Before the frost, a childhood friend of...